A hobby that turned into a business: Black Hills Vinyl

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Black Hills Vinyl is a record store and disc golf shop located in downtown Rapid City that has been around for about 13 years.

“We’ve grown the store over that from a small boutique business to occupying a huge space downtown,” Michael Calabrese, co-owner of Black Hills Vinyl, said.

The store started as just a hobby of collecting vinyls.

“It all started with us being collectors and looking for records online. We ended up finding a record store and then honestly a new life here in South Dakota,” Calabrese said.

Although Calabrese and his wife collected records, he explains how he was able to turn this hobby into a business.

“For us, it was a matter of coming into a lot of extra things. Maybe you find that great copy of a record and then later on down the line, you find a better copy. And so, that’s really how we started,” Calabrese said.

Record players, also known as phonographs, have been around for years. However, according to Statista, in 2006 is when they started to increase in popularity.

“They make new records nowadays – anything from Sabrina Carpenter to $uicideboy$, to even a brand-new record from Black Sabbath. We really see it all, and we have those in, but then we kind of have that special used collection as well,” Calabrese said.

Black Hills Vinyl buys, sells and trades records for other records or cash. However, they also sell another circular item in their shop.

“We’re super involved in the disk golf community. It was something where we were playing a lot of disc golf in the area and couldn’t find what we were looking to buy as far as discs. And you know when five or 10 friends ask you ‘Is there any chance you can get these discs in?’ and you have a store, you end up incorporating it in your business,” Calabrese said.

Black Hills Vinyl has been involved in the disc golf community for about 7 years, and they also help sponsor events.

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